Madama Butterfly: Classroom Guide

Study guide to Giacomo Puccini’s Japanese tragedy
M ADAME
BUTTERFLY
Presented by Michigan Opera Theatre at the Detroit Opera House,
November 15-23, 2014
THE WHO, WHAT, WHERE, AND WHEN
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Opera in two acts, the second act in two parts
Set in and around the house bought by Lieutenant B. F. Pinkerton on a hilltop in
Nagasaki, Japan, overlooking the sea; early 20th century
Premièred at Teatro La Scala in Milan, Italy—February 17, 1904
Text by Giuseppe Giacosa (1847-1906, b. Colleretto Parella, near Turin, in northern
Italy) and Luigi Illica (1857-1919, b. Castell’Arquato, near Piacenza, in northern
Italy)—their 4th and final opera for the composer (previous two for him were his other
most famous operas, La bohème (1896) and Tosca (1900))
Music by Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924, b. Lucca, in Tuscany, northern Italy)—his 6th
opera
Based on the one-act play Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan (1900) by American
dramatist and theatre impresario David Belasco, itself based on the novella Madame
Butterfly (1898) by American lawyer and writer John Luther Long, which was
inspired by stories told to Long by his sister Jennie Correll, who had travelled to
Japan with her husband to undertake Christian missionary work
Sung in Italian with English translations projected above the stage
Running time about 2½ hours
SING SOFTLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK:
The creators of Elektra (from left), composer
Giacomo Puccini and librettists Giuseppe Giacosa
and Luigi Illica.
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THE STORY
(Adapted from
Opera Stories by
Henry L. Mason,
1910, Boston, MA):
Act I
B. F. Pinkerton, an officer in the U.S. Navy, is in command of a ship stationed in
Japanese waters. He has rented a house in the city of Nagasaki, and with it, a Japanese
bride—the 15-year-old geisha Cio-Cio San, or “Madame Butterfly” (Cio-Cio translates as
“butterfly” in Japanese). After a while, Pinkerton must return to America. He promises
Butterfly (who has become deeply attached to him) that he will return to her “when the
robins nest.”
Act II
With loyal devotion, Butterfly awaits Pinkerton’s return, ignoring, meanwhile, more than
one Japanese suitor. The American consul, Sharpless, visits Butterfly to tell her he has
heard from Pinkerton, who has meanwhile married an American woman. But Sharpless
is so touched by her affection for Pinkerton that he cannot bring himself to relay the
dreadful news. She shows him her young son, whose father is Pinkerton.
A cannon is heard. To the great joy of Butterfly, she and Suzuki (her maid) see
Pinkerton’s ship pulling into the harbor. They decorate the house with flowers for his
return. All through the night, Butterfly watches in vain, waiting for Pinkerton’s arrival.
Suzuki finally begs her to rest, and Butterfly retires to another room to do so. After a
moment, Sharpless, Pinkerton, and Pinkerton’s new wife Kate appear. As Pinkerton
hears of Butterfly’s devotion, he flees in shame, leaving his wife and Sharpless to meet
Butterfly. Butterfly meets Kate and quickly understands the truth. Taking her father’s
sword, she kisses her son goodbye and kills
herself.
“BUT—HE IS A MIRACLE! YES!”
An illustration by C. Yarnall Abbott from
John Luther Long’s novella M adame
Butterfly , the source for the opera. In the
image, Butterfly shows off her and
Pinkerton’s baby, named “Trouble” (in the
opera, “Dolore,” meaning pain, sorrow).
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THE CAST OF CHARACTERS (AND SINGERS)
Cio-Cio San, aka
Madame Butterfly, a
young Japanese woman
• Moldavian lyric
soprano
Inna
Los (November 15, 19, 22)
• Italian lyric soprano Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi (November 21, 23)
B. F. (Benjamin Franklin) Pinkerton, an American naval lieutenant
• American tenor Noah Stewart (November 15, 19, 22)
• Canadian tenor Adam Luther (November 21, 23)
Sharpless, the American consul in Japan
• American tenor Michael Mayes
Goro, a marriage broker
• Korean-American tenor Julius Ahn
Suzuki, Butterfly’s maid
• American mezzo soprano Kimberly Sogioka
The production at the Detroit Opera House will feature the Michigan Opera Theatre
Orchestra and Chorus, the latter directed by MOT Assistant Music Director and
Chorus Master Suzanne Mallare Acton. American conductor Stephen Lord and French
stage director Bernard Uzan lead the artistic staff.
HEY THERE, SAILOR:
Noah Stewart as Pinkerton in a production of
M adame Butterfly produced by Opera North, a
company in northern England, 2014. Photo by
Robert Workman.
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BOOS FOR BUTTERFLY:
NOW A CLASSIC, BUTTERFLY WAS A DISASTER
AT ITS PREMIÈRE
How soon we forget, in all our starry-eyed reverence for the world's artistic treasures, that
these works were not always so dearly beloved. In 1848, London critics derided Emily
Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights as “a strange, inartistic story.” Detroit Industry
has attained in our fair metropolis a near-holy status, with Motowners from afar making
pilgrimages to the Detroit Institute of Arts just to study up-close the colorful array of
laborers and machinery. But in 1933, when the murals were revealed, there was outcry
from every corner, with newspapermen claiming the work was “anti-Catholic,”
“communist,” or “cartoonish.”
And similarly, on the 17thof February, 1904, Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly
premièred at Milan's La Scala to howls and hisses of the most passionate and illtempered Italian flavor. Theories abound as to why the audience reacted the way it did,
with some citing the singers’ deficient talents or the (now-revised) decision to perform the
piece in two uninterrupted acts, and others contending that the booing was deliberately
engineered by an artistic rival Puccini.
Puccini, however, remained confident of his work, knowing that it would prove a success
one day (as indeed it did, after being revised and revived just a few months later). It was
the composer’s favorite of all his operas. Whatever the cause for its original sour
reception, the astounding fact remains that Madame Butterfly, the most- performed
opera in America today, received at its introduction what Puccini later looked back on as
“a veritable lynching.”
A TRAGIC END:
The poster for the original production
of M adame Butterfly in Milan, which
was greeted at its première with howls
from the audience.
Question for students:
Think of a recently released creative work, whether a song, film, book, etc. How did
critics respond to it? How about your friends? How did you respond? What might
account for the differences in reception to the work? Can a work be truly bad or good, or
does all art just have different appeal to different people?
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BUTTERFLY FLITTING THROUGH THE AGES
Our production’s Cio-Cio Sans, Inna Los and Donata D’Annunzio Lombardi, have some
tremendous wooden sandals to fill…
Moldavian soprano Inna Los has been praised for her
“round middle voice with a luscious, silvery upper register.”
She will need all that shimmering silver quality when she
portrays Butterfly, who boasts to Pinkerton while wearing
her wedding kimono, “Somiglio la Dea della luna, la
piccola Dea della luna che scende la notte dal ponte del
ciel” [I am like the Moon Goddess, the little Moon
Goddess who descends at night from the bridge of
heaven].
Italian soprano Donata
D’Annunzio Lombardi last appeared in Detroit in May 2014 as
the sympathetic slave girl Liù in Puccini’s other Asian-set opera,
Turandot. Opera News wrote of that performance,
“D’Annunzio Lombardi's spinning, nearly endless pianissimos
[moments of very quiet singing] convinced us of the softness of
Liu's heart.” Doubtless she will put this same skill with tender
moments to good use when she brings us into Butterfly’s world.
Italian soprano Rosina Storchio originated the role, but vowed to never
sing it again in Italy after the first-night fiasco. Her decision hurt
Puccini deeply, and he wrote to her on February 22nd, 1904, “I think that
Butterfly without Rosina Storchio becomes a thing without soul. What
a shame!”
Italian soprano Renata Scotto, who now
works as a stage director (she directed
MOT’s production of Vincenzo Bellini’s La
Sonnambula [The sleepwalker] in 2008),
made her Met debut as Cio-Cio San in 1965.
Her audio recording of the role is
considered one of the finest.
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AN INTERVIEW
WITH “DR.
! Michigan Opera Theatre Communications Department !
OPERA”
or group tickets, contact Kim Gray, Ticket Services Assistant Manager, at kimg@motopera.org !
Dr. Wallace Peace, a
! Guide written and prepared by Michael Yashinsky, MOT Communications Department,
professor of history, gives
yashinsky@post.harvard.edu !
the always-entertaining “Opera Talks” for free at every MOT opera performance, an hour
before curtain. In them, he gives his thoughts on the music, tells the story of the opera,
and plays excerpts of his favorite singers’ recordings. We caught up with the venerable
Dr. Peace in his opera library at home to get his thoughts on Butterfly.
Some have accused Madame Butterfly of being antiAmerican. How do you respond to the claim?
DR. PEACE: At the end of Butterfly, you can’t help but feel the horror
of the thing. Great Cio-Cio Sans, like Renata Tebaldi or Renata Scotto
or Leontyne Price, made a whole career of having you just dissolve in
tears when they “got it” in the end. And the man the soprano is playing
against must be dreadful in order for her to do her work. So I’d say the
opera is perhaps anti-“terrible man,” but not anti- American.
Is Pinkerton’s American wife, Kate, the most thankless role
of all opera?
Oh, there’s nothing you can do with that role! The audience doesn’t like you, Suzuki
doesn’t like you, and I don’t know how Pinkerton feels, because he leaves you to pick up
the mess. And when Kate walks over to Butterfly, she says just about the worst thing she
could possibly say and then exits. You won't be elected Miss Opera for singing that one!
Butterfly’s servants have some wonderfully unusual nicknames: “Miss
Gentle Breeze of Morning,” “Ray of the Golden Sunbeam,” and “SweetScented Pine Tree.” What would your Puccini nickname be?
Well, there’s a name that I would pick out, and a name that my students would pick out!
But my godson’s mother gave me the name “Dr. Opera,” and that has stuck. I even use it
for my e-mail address.
We hear that Butterfly was the piece that first turned you on to opera.
Yes, I was watching the Bell Telephone Hour, a popular show in which a classical artist
would come out and perform for the evening. When [Italian soprano] Signorina [Renata]
Tebaldi came out in her Butterfly costume and sang “Un bel dì,” I thought it was
absolutely glorious. She could sing even better than Miss Grace Hayes, the soloist at St.
Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, where I grew up.
Later, I went to the classical records shop and asked the owner if he had heard of
Tebaldi. Don’t forget, I was 15—if she was new to me, she was new to everyone else. And
they indeed had Butterfly with Tebaldi, but it was $5, a week’s salary. So I put down a
dollar a week, and after five weeks, I bought the record. He let me off the sales tax.
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